Vic Berger’s videos will be remembered as one of the best documents of our current era. Like Ralph Steadman illustrations, Berger zooms in on the ugliness of American politics and blows the results up into horrifying grotesques that get across the nightmare that lies just beneath the surface of daily life.
In his latest video, “MAGA Men & Their Trump Trucks,” Berger continues his work by looking at exactly what’s in the title, providing a wild collage of Trump superfans in their big boy vehicles, advertising what they think of the president and his opponents.
Set to the sound of roaring engines, elevator music, and excerpts of Trump speeches, the clip shows beefy supporters driving around and holding forth on their nuanced political viewpoints. Footage of rallies and big-ass trucks is mixed with interview splices with Trump fans who explain, as in the case of an InfoWars segment, that they love him because “he ain’t taking no shit from all them fucking liberals.”
The trucks, of course, are a big highlight. Festooned with Confederate and Gadsden flags, the Stars And Stripes, and a whole bunch of Trump pictures, every conceivable variety of Trump hell-vehicle is on display. The “best” include a giant truck with a septic tank on the back—VOTE TRUMP TRAIN is stenciled beside “RESIDUAL WASTE”—and other slogan-strewn vehicles being towed, smashed, or pulled over by the police.
Berger’s trademarks are all here: There’s grainy close-ups and a muzak background cut by blaring horns and atonal horror movie music. There’s perfectly-timed cuts between, say, a mannequin with a Trump/Pence campaign poster and an asshole in a jeep yelling “AOC’s a fucking dumbass.” It’s all hilarious and nauseating and ridiculous—in other words, a good record of the state of things.
